Under The Table Vol. 1 - Who Is The Voice Of Your Generation?

Welcome, welcome to our first discussion here on RHT where the minds that matter meet up with the matter that minds, "Under The Table!" This is a liquid conversation, that preferably will take on the appearance of a Roundtable Meeting Of The Minds, but could no doubt evaporate into drunken name calling and food throwing. Irregardless of the outcome, we're gonna have fun with this so let's get started before the beer gets warm:

For those growing up in the 1960's, Bob Dylan has always been widely acknowledged as "the voice of his generation." Who would you consider "the voice of your generation," and why?


EZ - for me, it is the lame answer of Kurt Cobain...by lame, I mean, it sounds "cliche'".. but i was young enough to follow the entire grunge movement (at least once it hit mainstream for the most part, which sounds paradoxical huh?- mainstream grunge)...I could identify with those bands, with their angst and lyrics...as I look back, I'm not really sure why we felt the way we did, but it felt damn good... the first time I broke my nose was in a mosh pit thrashing around to "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Soundgarden and Alice In Chains were great, and don't get me started on Pearl Jam and how Eddie Vedder brought a new bag of tricks to the table...but Kurt spelled it out right. For me, I'm terrible at remembering lyrics but I bet I can sit down right now and play everyone of those songs from memory...the music and feeling just defined me at that time in my life.

Another that comes to mind for me would be...a bit later, towards the end of high school and college, Dave Matthews was a voice for me... but I'll stick to Kurt. I remember when Nevermind was released. I was in 8th grade and I remember Jon Soards and I riding to the Dayton Mall with Kurt Cokonougher to get some school stuff. We went to the record store and I remember a wall of Nirvana cd's, with the naked baby...I thought that was wild..I had seen the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video on MTV and kind of dug it...I ended up buying a lizard and a big tank to take care of it and Soards and I split the cost on the cd...listened to it on the ride home and that was it...it was totally crazy sound and it became me.

Dean - I graduated from high school in '77, so I'll use the years 1972 to about 1981 as my formative ones. Wow, what a cultural wasteland that time period was. We were already pining for the 60's back then. My musical hero was (and is) David Bowie, and rock music would be lessened if he never existed, but he wouldn't qualify as the Voice of a generation in America.
Dark Side of the Moon was played more or less continuously during this ten years. Maybe it was the soundtrack to our generation, if not the Voice. Television became the thing to watch with a gathering of friends, but you had to turn it off in order to have a conversation.

... anyway, even though he was gigantic before 1972 I guess I'll pick Lou Reed as my choice for Voice. That was fun to type. His album "Rock and Roll Animal" set the standard for live albums, and still does based on pure explosive performance. His lyrics became more engaging for a wider audience, maybe because he wasn't shocking anymore, but he sure could describe the hard side of life. I felt like I had met real people with problems that put mine to shame when I listened to his songs. He's had an immeasurable influence on musicians of all genres for the last 40 years, including my favorite lyricist story: His first performance of his new album "New York" in 1988, done of course in NYC, consisted of Lou standing on stage, solo, reading each song in order from his own lyric sheets. No music or sound. The audience sat silently for the hour or so that it took, then rewarded him with a standing O as he left the stage and the concert hall. Rave reviews and all. Not bad.

DJ - I'm with EZ in that Kurt Cobain would be the easy choice. I was a sophomore in college when Nevermind came out, and I immediately became ashamed of my music collection at the time. I literally boxed up my Kiss & Motley Crue cassettes so no one would see them. I was already getting into Alice In Chains & Jane's Addiction, and Nirvana was the group that sealed my liberty from hair metal. I had a bad car accident the following summer also, and In Utero really resonated with me, especially "All Apologies." Kurt's death in 1994 also snapped me back into reality, showing me I hadn't grown up enough yet and I didn't know a damn thing about "real life."

All that being said, I was still a child of the 80's - the video age - and I feel compelled to systematically eliminate my candidates. We had images of Micheal Jackson & Madonna burned into our eyes. Bono really tried his hardest to BE the voice of our generation, but being an 80's kid I wanted to keep all my stuff and preferred not to give it to some starving kid in a 3rd world country. Springsteen released Born In the U.S.A., but that really was for the previous generation...then there was Tunnel Of Love. Some folks can argue with merit that Chuck D. from Public Enemy was the voice of my generation, and while I don't necessarily disagree, I'm from a small Mid-Western town of 5,000 & would be bullshitting you all if I told you I knew how Chuck D. felt. I understood, but could not relate. Therefore, if I add all that together: (MJ + Madonna) + The Boss - Chuck D = John Mellencamp. He's cool...but not that big of a fan. Sorry. Fail.

Which leaves me with only one other possibility for the voice of my generation. This person embraced the video media (reluctantly). He has an eye for social issues. He's small-town, working class. He's outspoken, yet in a very subtle way. He is: Michael Stipe. This exercise has shown me that the music of R.E.M. is the soundtrack of my life. They've experimented, sometimes not too successfully, yet they're loyal & true. There's a naked simplicity there, yet so complicated at the same time. Michael Stipe (with Mike Mills countering in the background) is indeed the voice of my generation.

SuperVesey - When I first saw this question I instantly flashed back to my high school years and tried to remember who really spoke to my generation. This is a difficult question from the start because I can't really say what we use to qualify the "voice of a generation." Are we talking about lyrical relevence and commentary on the times? Popularity based on radio play (I hope not). Or maybe even just influencial artists that helped form your "musical taste." I am kind of partial to the latter (and its a heck of a lot easier than narrowing it down to one!) so I'll share some of the artists that sunk a groove deep into my brain.

Being in high school in the early to mid '90's points directly to the grunge era. Kurt Cobain brought a new edge to music to say the least, and Vedder and company followed suit by helping usher in a totally new genre. I agree with DJ that the old hair band cassettes (Twisted Sister, Poison, Cinderella) suddenly seemed like the bubble gum classics of the 50's compared to the angst and raw energy of the grunge bands. But while I might like to maintain that this more serious brand of rock completely turned me away from mindless foot-tappers I would be lying if I did.

My generation was the one where MC Hammer was cool (if only ever so briefly). Hip-hop became the dominant force for MTV and guys like me kind of liked some of it. Sure Metallica and heavy metal was there to balance everything out but the variety became acceptable. I can remember when the music stores were pretty much divided into Rock and Country/Western. Genres (which may be a word born in my generation) sprang up that crossed lines (Run DMC/Aerosmith, Public Enemy/Anthrax) that opened the eyes of country bumpkins from Highland County to stuff our parents didn't even consider music. I mean, do you remember "Rock Me Amadeus"? Really, what was that? Song? Story? It was totally awesome is what it was.

I dunno, add it all up grunge, rock, hip-hop and alternative and I would have to say the voice of my generation was Hank Williams Jr. See that's just it, no voice can contain it. You want my voice? Fire up the old "We Are the World" video. That's my voice. Especially the Huey Lewis voice.

DJ - I'm so changing my answer to Falco too, SuperVesey. "Rock Me Amadeus" was the bomb. Why wasn't he in "We Are the World?" What? He's Austrian? So what...he and Taco ("Puttin' On The Ritz") would make a formidable tag team unlike the world has ever seen.

Shoe - Sorry I'm so late to the "table" here kids, but I've been busy over at that damn sports site I've been running. Anyway, being the old dude in the bunch my answer is going to take an obviously different route. For me it's a no-brainer - John Lennon was the voice for me. Yes, he was 16-years older than me but he still counts, right? The thing with Lennon was, he said as much outside of his songs as he did within his lyrics. I mean this literally. Lennon was truly saying things publicly that I only dreamed of saying to my parents and teachers. As I stated in a a blog on here a long time ago, it all started for me with "Nowhere Man." Simple yet deep (at least for this 10-year old kid) lyrics about individual apathy really struck a chord with me. It was kind of an early 60's "Comfortably Numb", at least in my mind. Not only that, on a much simpler level Lennon was the first person I ever read about who would be completely honest with an interviewer. The man was completely devoid of bullshit. Honorable Mention would have to go to the aforementioned Dylan, as well as Mr. Bruce Springsteen. I never grew up in Jersey, but there was a period in the mid-70's where I wish I had. One more thing, and I hate to beat a dead horse about who the best grunge bands were, but you Cobain fans have listened to Green River, Melvins, Sonic Youth and The Pixies, right? Right?